The long run of Myles Mayberry

by Alfred Alcorn

Combine the poetic hymns to running of Alan Sillitoe, the tales of obsessive behavior of Oliver Sacks, and a healthy dose of the anarchy and absurdity of Cambridge in the '70s, and you get The Long Run of Myles Mayberry. Myles is a genial loser, moving from one failed job to another. The only thing he has going for him is his dream of winning the Boston Marathon, which not even a stint in a psychiatric hospital can remedy. Alfred Alcorn spins a freewheeling farce with a solid core of longing, determination and single-minded ambition, lampooning along the way every form of '70s excess. The Long Run of Myles Mayberry is a delightful, campy spoof of bad behavior, and a thoughtful elegy to the joys of running.